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The moment stretched, impossibly long and silent. Every eye in the Grand Throne Room fixed on Coralina, waiting for the vows that would seal her fate and secure their kingdom’s future. The High Priest of the Tides held his ceremonial trident aloft, his aged face patient but with a growing line of concern creasing his brow.
"Princess Coralina," he prompted gently, his voice a low murmur in the suddenly tense chamber. "Speak your pledge."
She tried to form the words. She tried to force her lips to move, to say what was expected, what was necessary, what would ensure peace for her people. But Caspian’s name would not come. Only William’s echoed in the confines of her mind.
The water around the altar churned faster, a physical manifestation of the chaos inside her. Small whirlpools formed and dissipated around her feet. The bioluminescent light of the chamber flickered and pulsed in a frantic rhythm, matching her racing heartbeat. The very architecture of the room seemed to hold its breath.
"Coralina." King Theron’s voice was low, but it carried an undeniable warning, a sharp edge of command. "Speak your vows."
She looked at her father and saw the steel in his eyes, the unyielding expectation. He had built his entire reign on the principles of duty and sacrifice. He had taught her from childhood that personal desires meant nothing when compared to the needs of the kingdom. He would not understand her hesitation. He could not understand.
Her gaze shifted to Caspian. He stood perfectly still, his expression carefully neutral, but she could see the tension in his shoulders, the tightness around his jaw. He knew something was profoundly wrong. Any fool could see it now. The water had begun to rise from the floor, forming serpentine columns that twisted and writhed around the sacred altar like angry spirits.
Courtiers in the outer circles began to murmur, their whispers spreading like a contagion. Some moved backward, putting distance between themselves and the increasingly violent display of hydrokinesis. The royal guards positioned around the room tensed, their hands moving to their weapons, though what good a spear would do against water itself, none could say.
"Coralina." The priest’s voice held a clear note of alarm now. "Child, you must speak. The ceremony cannot proceed without your pledge."
Cannot proceed. The words resonated in her mind, offering a sliver of hope. Perhaps that was the answer. Perhaps if she simply stayed silent, if she refused to speak, the ceremony would end on its own. It might be a quiet refusal, not a dramatic escape.
But she knew her father. She knew he would not accept silence. He would postpone the ceremony, lock her in her chambers, and wait for days or weeks or months until she bent to his will. Eventually, she knew she would. The pressure would become too much to bear, and she would speak the vows just to make it stop.
Unless she acted now.
The realization crystallized in her mind with perfect, terrifying clarity. This was her only chance. This was her only moment. If she did not seize it, she would spend the rest of her life regretting her cowardice, wondering what might have been if she had only been brave enough to choose for herself.
The water columns around the altar grew taller, more violent. They began to merge, forming a swirling vortex with Coralina at its center. She was not consciously controlling it anymore. The power had taken on a life of its own, fed by her desperation and fear and the wild, impossible hope that William still waited for her somewhere on the surface.
"Stop this!" King Theron commanded, his voice booming through the chamber. "Daughter, control yourself!"
But she could not stop it. She did not want to stop it. The power surged through her like nothing she had ever felt, raw and primal and utterly beyond her ability to contain.
Prince Caspian moved then, his instincts overriding protocol. He lunged forward, one hand reaching for her as if to pull her from the eye of the storm. But before he could reach her, a wall of water erupted between them with concussive force, throwing him back.
The High Priest stumbled away from the altar, his ceremonial robes tangling around his legs. The trident fell from his hands and clattered against the coral floor, the sound lost in the growing roar of the water.
And then, with a sound like thunder splitting stone, the Altar of the Deep cracked.
The ancient coral structure, which had stood for countless generations, which had witnessed the binding of kings and queens since the founding of Caelumaris, fractured down its center. Chunks of crimson coral broke away and tumbled through the churning water. The ceremonial platform where Coralina and Caspian had stood moments before split apart, creating a deep chasm between them.
The court erupted into chaos.
Nobles screamed and scattered in a panic. Guards rushed forward, trying to reach the royal family through the maelstrom. The jellyfish lanterns were torn from their moorings and sent spinning through the throne room, their light flickering wildly like dying stars.
"Coralina!" King Theron’s roar cut through the pandemonium. His face was a mask of shock and fury, his silver crown knocked askew. "What have you done?"
She met her father’s eyes across the destroyed altar. She saw the betrayal there, the rage, the complete inability to comprehend how his own daughter could have caused such a desecration.
In that moment, Coralina understood that there was no going back. She had not simply refused her vows. She had destroyed the symbol of her kingdom’s most sacred tradition. She had humiliated her father before his entire court. She had shattered an alliance that had taken months to negotiate.
There would be no forgiveness for this.
Caspian had recovered his footing and was creating a protective barrier of solidified water around the royal family, his own hydrokinesis forming a shield against the flying debris. His face was grim but not angry. If anything, he looked concerned, as if he had finally understood the depths of her desperation.
But his concern changed nothing. The damage was done.
The vortex around Coralina intensified, fed by her fear and her newfound determination. She had wanted an escape, and her power had given her one. The churning water obscured vision, scattered guards, and created chaos in every direction.
It was her only chance.
Coralina gathered her will and pushed outward with everything she had. The vortex expanded violently, knocking back anyone still trying to approach. Furniture toppled. Ancient tapestries tore from the walls. The elegant throne room descended into absolute pandemonium.
In the chaos, Coralina turned and fled.
She did not look back at her father’s furious face. She did not spare a final glance for Caspian, who had tried to understand. She did not think about the court she was leaving in ruins or the alliance she had destroyed.
She thought only of the surface. Of sunlight and stars and a boy who had promised to find her.
I am coming, William. After all these years, I am finally coming.
The throne room’s grand archway loomed ahead. Beyond it lay the corridors of the palace, and beyond those, the open ocean. Freedom. Or something close to it.
Coralina swam through the archway as the sounds of organized pursuit began behind her.
The escape had begun.